Our Vision
To provide a state of the art environment of care for New Directions for Women’s internationally accredited rehabilitation services, and to expand our services to reach more women, families, and their children.
You can support our current fundraising efforts for Faith House, our home for women and children recovering from the family disease of addiction.
At New Directions for Women, we are committed to the continuous treatment of women of all ages, pregnant women in any trimester, women with children, and their families to achieve sustainable responsible recovery. We are one of a handful of centers in the country that will treat a woman in any trimester of pregnancy, and women with their children from 0 – 13 years of age. This allows children to be born alcohol and drug free, thus reducing cases of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) – the leading cause of intellectual &developmental disabilities in our country. Our facility has never undertaken a major renovation and the majority of our buildings are over 50 years old. Our vision is to expand and upgrade the existing facilities to the highest caliber in order to offer a healing opportunity to more women, families and their children. These undertakings will more than double our bed capacity to 42 residential beds for women and up to 18 beds for children, and allow for more than forty children on campus on any given day. While the mothers are at New Direction for Women beginning their recovery journey, we have found that it is a critical time to assist the child, who needs helps adjusting to a new living situation and the trauma they’ve undergone while living with addiction. More children than ever before will be able to heal from the devastating effects of chemical dependency.
Our Challenge
New Directions for Women is poised for greatness. We have served over 5,000 women, had over 500 children live on our campus since 2001 with their mothers, and over 100 newborns were born while their mothers were in residence with us. But, we are facing significant challenges due to our physical plant. Aging buildings, therapy rooms and living spaces do not meet our high standards for environment of care. Our buildings lack the physical space necessary to treat as many women and families that are calling us for help. These limitations also impact new staff recruitment because we are running out of space to house our necessary expansion in personnel. We are not able to host events which build collaborative partnerships with businesses, community groups, and other treatment providers.
We want to keep with the loving intent our Founders had to build a safe sanctuary where women can heal from addiction. Although we do incredible work with the space we have, the buildings are costly to maintain, due to being out-of-date. This renovation will create a state of the art environment of care and provide the best possible setting for women in new recovery and their families, while also reducing overall maintenance costs.
Phases to our Master Plan
- (Phase I) In 2013, we completed the acquisition, renovation, and licensing of two beautiful homes on Willo Lane. They are used as Intensive Sober Living homes – one for women, and one for women with their dependent children. We are incredibly grateful to our philanthropic angel investors who made this possible!
- (Phase II – ON HOLD DUE TO COVID-19)Founder’s Hall building is almost thirty years old and has outgrown its usefulness. Dot Clock, Howard Bland, and other supporters spearheaded the capital campaign to build Founder’s Hall in 1984, and it was not built with the intent for the expansion we have experienced over the years with children and families being served. Founder’s Hall will include expanded dining spaces so all of the women in our expanded campus can eat together as a community, as can staff in a separate staff dining area. In addition to expanded inside dining spaces, we will create a state of the art outdoor dining area which will help expand our Alumnae Services. Our plans include a Spiritual Sunroom, which will be used day to day as well as on Saturdays for an interfaith recovery ministry. This expansion will especially benefit incoming patients, as we will be able to provide a more dignified Intake and Medications area for patients by expanding the Care Coordinator office.
- (Phase III – ON HOLD DUE TO COVID-19) Faith House is forty five years old and is where our women with children currently reside. Rebuilding will allow us to grow our childcare square footage from 300 sq. ft. to 2000 sq. ft., and grow our daycare as a Social Enterprise to the community at large. On any given day, we will be able to serve up to fifteen children living residentially with us, and an additional
- (Phase IV – ON HOLD DUE TO COVID-19) Pfister House is about fifty four years old and is currently used for Administration. With major construction completed, there will be implementation of additional treatments that will improve overall care (i.e. family programs, as well as parenting classes and parental coaching). Pfister will also house a spa, which will offer services such as massage, whirlpool, and acupressure along with other forms of holistic healing. These services will provide care currently unavailable for those that suffer from chronic pain and ongoing trauma.
- (Phase V – ON HOLD DUE TO COVID-19) Courage, Grace, and New Home; The new facility is complete with the acquisition of a new house, and renovation of Courage House to be Residential space, and Grace as our renovated gym. Our third house will be licensed as residential house, which will bring our final capacity to 42 Residential beds, 10 Intensive Sober Living beds, and 15 beds for children. As our census continues to grow over the first several years after completion of the project and we reach 90% capacity, we project an approximate net operating surplus of at least $500K with no Foundation contribution.
- (Phase VI – ON HOLD DUE TO COVID-19) Endowment – With our expanded vision, New Directions for Women Foundation’s money will be freed up to build a 5 million dollar endowment that will be able to fulfill the Founder’s vision of almost four decades ago — with scholarships keeping care affordable, with money to create new programs as new techniques prove their efficacy, with funds to maintain and improve the physical plant or build new buildings – in short, to provide enduring financial support to NDFW and leaving it as a legacy for the generations of women suffering from alcoholism and addiction to come and get well.
